Judge Finds Ex-Motorola Employee Stole Secrets

By BLOOMBERG NEWS

Published: February 9, 2012

Hanjuan Jin, a former Motorola software engineer, was found guilty on Wednesday of stealing trade secrets from the company but was acquitted of economic espionage to benefit a foreign government.

In a separate case, a California businessman was charged with attempted economic espionage, accused of trying to obtain trade secrets from DuPont for Chinese companies.

In the Motorola case, Ms. Jin was tried in November before Judge Ruben Castillo of Federal District Court in Chicago after being indicted on three counts of stealing trade secrets and three more counts of economic espionage. She waived her right to a jury.

Judge Castillo found her guilty of stealing trade secrets and acquitted her on the three counts of economic espionage.

He allowed Ms. Jin to remain in home confinement and scheduled sentencing for April 18.

Ms. Jin, 41, faces as much as 10 years in prison on the trade secrets conviction. She faced as much as 15 years in prison on each of the economic espionage counts.

She was indicted in 2008, a year after she returned to Motorola after a yearlong medical leave of absence and immediately stepped down.

She was accused of simultaneously working for Motorola and for a Beijing-based company, the Kai Sun News (Beijing) Technology Company, also known as SunKaisens, which was affiliated with China's military.

In California, Walter Liew and the Pangang Group of China were charged with conspiring to steal trade secrets about titanium dioxide technology from DuPont, according to the Justice Department and a revised indictment.

Mr. Liew also was charged with attempted economic espionage, according to the indictment filed in federal court in San Francisco. Pangang's titanium and steel units were named in the indictment as well. Mr. Liew's wife, a Chinese citizen, and two others were also charged.

The defendants were involved in a ''long-running effort'' to obtain United States trade secrets for Chinese companies, Melinda Haag, the United States attorney for the Northern District of California, said in a statement.

China had sought to develop the ability to produce titanium dioxide, and state-owned companies including Pangang conspired to steal the technology developed over many years by DuPont, she said.

DuPont, based in Wilmington, Del., is the world's largest manufacturer of titanium dioxide, a white pigment commonly used in coatings, plastics and paper.